515-LB COCAINE BUST IN CONTRA COSTA

Drugs Were Stashed In Duffel Bags Suspended In Nets Inside A Hatch

THE SEIZURE AMOUNT: 515 pounds of cocaine, making it the largest such haul
at a Bay Area port in the past 10 years. WORTH: Estimated street value, $25
million.

U.S. Customs Service officials acting on a tip seized $25 million worth of
Colombian cocaine hidden on an oil tanker docked at the Martinez marina,
the largest cocaine bust at a Bay Area port in at least a decade.

"This is a remarkable seizure," Alice M. Rigdon, port director for the
Customs Service, said at a press conference Tuesday. The Bay Area is not
known as a cocaine-receiving port, she said. The drugs were found Saturday
morning on the M.T. Aramis, which had come directly from Ecuador. Nearly
200 bricks of cocaine wrapped in plastic were found bundled in duffel bags
in the ship's hold, she said. The duffel bags were suspended by nets in a
hatch that led to the water.

Most likely, the smugglers would have cut the nets, sending the bags
falling down the hatch into the water where divers or a small boat would
have been waiting, she said.

Customs officials worked with several other police agencies, including the
Contra Costa County and Alameda County sheriff's offices and the Martinez
Police Department.

After determining that the Greek captain had taken precautions while docked
in Ecuador -- including confining the crew to quarters, searching the ship
and using security on the gangway -- officials released the ship. It
delivered 350,000 barrels of crude oil bound for a refinery and returned to
Ecuador. "Because the captain had searched the ship and had security and
because we couldn't pin it to one crew member, we couldn't confiscate the
ship," Rigdon said.

Under an anti-smuggling agreement with Customs officials, many shipping
lines and airlines have agreed to beef up their own internal security to
ensure their ships and airplanes were drug free. In return, if drugs are
found, Customs officials have agreed not to confiscate those ships and
airplanes if the precautions are followed, said Mike Fleming, public
affairs officer for the Customs Service.

Ridgon said, however, the ship's owners will most likely face a fine. There
is very little shipping traffic from Ecuador. Officials believe the drugs
were bound for a major trafficking operation. The street value of the drugs
was estimated to be $25 million. "This amount of cocaine doesn't move
unless there is a formal organization," Rigdon said. "We are sure there is
a whole distribution network that goes with this cocaine." Customs
Inspector J. Rowen was one of 20 officials who began searching the ship at
6 a.m. Saturday. It took about two hours to find the drugs.

After opening several hatches -- each secured with about 20 screws --
officials found the drugs suspended in nets, he said. Everyone broke into a
cheer.

"It was exhilarating," he said. The cocaine, which was tested and found to
be 80 percent pure, will eventually be burned.

While Customs officials in the Bay Area make more than 1,000 drug seizures
each year, it is unusual to see anything of this magnitude, she said.

Ridgon said Saturday's seizure is the largest amount of cocaine seized in a
Bay Area port in at least 10 years, but a larger amount was discovered in
1994 at sea off the coast near San Francisco. In that case, Customs
officials working with the Coast Guard seized 6,000 pounds of cocaine from
a fishing vessel, Rigdon said.

The biggest seizure in American history was in the late 1980s, when between
8,000 and 10,000 pounds of cocaine was found in a Los Angeles warehouse,
she said.